Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live?Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. Numbers 31:15-16 – Let’s state this upfront, this is a difficult chapter to process through. Clearly the Lord’s blessing was behind this for we see Him be the one to give the marching orders. He abundantly provides for His people through the spoils of war, and we see there was a sovereign protection over Israel for they didn’t even lose one solider in the whole battle. Yet in this God ordained battle we see some difficult commands being spoken such as killing all the women that hadn’t yet slept with a man that we were kept alive after the battle. Why would God say this? The reason is stated above, while the Israelites apparently forgot what these ladies had led them into, God hadn’t. It was the Midianite women that led Israel into the worship of Baal and sexual immorality. While the people didn’t see them as a danger, God knew they were and commanded His people to rid themselves of this danger. Again, this is a difficult passage to read due to these harsh commands of the Lord, but it does remind us how serious the Lord is against the things that lure us away from Him. He doesn’t give grace to such things, and nor should we. He doesn’t see letting these lures just hang around a bit as alright like we might. God’s command is a complete end to anything and everything that would pull us away from Him. What then have you allowed to remain in your life that you know has the potential to lure you away from a devotion to the Lord? If God had a chance to speak into your life about that thing, what do you think He’d say about it? I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3381
Question To Ponder: Why would the Lord give such harsh commands like we see in scripture? Take some time to research this question.
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